Raging Revenge
Back in the English hallway raged an ongoing April Fool’s Day war. It all started with the scheme of English teacher Mr. Sean Rochester.
“I decided to take an Elmer’s glue stick and smear it all over previous senior, Emily Schnaare’s, desk,” Rochester said. “You can imagine her face when she sat down to a sticky desk.”
Schnaare knew that she needed to get back at Rochester. She voiced a threat so that he knew something was coming.
“I walked into my classroom on April 1, and I saw that I was the victim of a Post-it note bombing,” Rochester said.
At the crack of dawn, previous seniors Deanna Patelis, Eli Wasserman and Emily Schnaare had gone in and covered every possible surface with multicolored Post-it notes.
“Initially I was shocked, but I soon smiled as I realized what had happened,” Rochester said. “I had been giving a warning that something was coming; I just didn’t know what.”
The Post-it notes covered every possible surface and many were extremely high up, causing Rochester to use chairs and ladders to get them down.
“Because this was severely annoying, I sought revenge,” Rochester said. “Schnaare was going to Truman for college, so I found the Truman logo and wrote a fake letter.”
Schnaare was called to the counseling office where a letter was waiting to be read. The letter explained that due to her declining grades, she was at risk of losing her admission.
“She claims that she knew it was a fraud by the time she was done reading it, but this was by far one of my favorite pranks,” Rochester said.
A Field of Folly
Although the celebration of April Fool’s Day is a tradition for the varsity soccer program, soccer coach Mr. John Theobald had no idea a prank was on its way. For senior Jessica Brady, looking back at April 1 during the freshman year brings back fond memories.
“I have been on varsity for four years now so I have gotten to be part of many, but, my freshman year was by far the best,” Brady said.
On the day after a great win, it was expected that the team would be in cheerful spirits. Instead, everyone came to practice really upset.
“Passes were terrible, everyone showed little effort, no one was working, and there was obvious tension between all players,” Brady said.
It didn’t take long before Theobald noticed something was wrong.
“When I walked onto the field, there was the perception that previous player, senior Kori Richardson was starting a lot of trouble. Much of this was directed especially toward the freshman,” Theobald said.
Theobald decided to consult assistant coach Mrs. Megan Meyer. Meyer promptly pulled aside Kori Richardson, whereby she was let her in on the secret: the girls were staging a fake fight.
“Kori was by far the key actress,” said Brady. “While she was talking to Megan, she yelled, ‘I just hate them all I can’t believe they would do this to me!’ By this point Theo is getting pretty upset.”
Theobald said he was indeed caught off guard.
“I was totally stunned,” Theobald said. “I thought everything was well inside the team chemistry. It didn’t even dawn on me that it was April 1.”
After about 15 minutes, previous senior player Molly Berrier spoke up and all of the girls yelled, “April Fool’s!”
“I was mostly mad at myself for falling for it, but to their credit, it was the best acting,” Theobald said. “They will most likely try to fool me again this year, but my radar is going to be up.”
Innocent Intentions
For history teacher Dr. Susan King, one specific April Fool’s Day is the tale of playful and harmless intentions being misinterpreted and revenged. King was planning a lesson on the Protestant Reformation and had come up with a great idea to convey her message to the students. To demonstrate the current corruption of the Catholic church through their selling of indulgences to get to heaven, King used the illustration that students could buy their grades from her.
“The students actually believed me. They started calculating their grades to figure out much money they would have to pay. So I kept the joke going,” King said.
When King finally revealed that she was joking, the students were devastated.
“The entire class was so disappointed with me. I guess this is why they wanted to get back,” King said.
April Fool’s Day was approaching and it provided the perfect opportunity for this history class to get even. On April 1, a student resource officer came in and interrupted class. The officer expressed that he needed to speak with her immediately.
“In this moment, I was so terrified that I have tried blocking the entire memory from my mind,” King said.
King was promptly told that she had committed a serious traffic violation and would need to step outside with the school officer.
“I was extremely frightened and flustered, but I was trying to gather myself together,” King said. “Upon seeing my anxiety, my students burst out laughing and yelled ‘April Fool’s.’”